Books like The Romanovs

A lot of people have heard about a crazy monk called Grigorii Rasputin, who, by the way, was neither crazy nor a monk. We read many volumes about him when researching our book on the myths of the Russian Revolution. We thought we had seen it all. Yet Douglas Smith’s book about Rasputin was still an eye-opener.

This scholarly book, based on years of archival work, reads like a work of fiction. Page after page lifts the veil of mystery surrounding Rasputin! We also deeply appreciated how Smith placed the powerful courtier in the social context of his time—the peasants, the priests, the aristocrats, the imperial court—many of which perished in the Revolution. 

An undoubted classic and one of the first books - if not the first - to treat the subject of Nicholas and Alexandra and their son Alexei’s hemophilia with a little sympathy.

Massie had a hemophiliac son but his regard for Rasputin as Alexei’s healer still leaves something to be desired.

This one read more like a novel than a historical work, which I what I went for - partially - when writing my own work on the subject.

Also, it’s one of the few books sympathetic to Alexandra and doesn’t descend to calling her ‘neurotic’, ‘hysterical’, or any other such slurs designed to denigrate women.

A great overview of the relationship between the tsar and his wife, if not entirely sympathetic all of the time; still, she’s a wonderful writer - and yes she provided the foreword for my book so I am biased!

It also contains many nuggets and tidbits overlooked in various of the other works I mention.

I love contemplating what happens to the characters of a book or a film AFTER it ends, and this book took me right past the usual culmination in the story of the Romanovs: the Russian Revolution and the murder of the Tsar and his family by the Bolsheviks.

I found the story of the Romanovs surviving in immigration very poignant: as an immigrant myself, I could relate to their nostalgia for the motherland that no longer existed, their troubles and the dynamics in their immigrant families.

The story of the Tsar’s mother, Minnie, leaving Crimea on board a British gunship, surrounded by the remains of her family, and the last loyal officers on another ship singing to her just made me bawl!

I read lots of research on Rasputin’s life and death, but this book, unlike others, grabbed my attention like a murder mystery, not a tedious historical treatise.

Although the book goes into a lot of historical detail, including the author’s interviews with descendants of some of the characters in the story, it is never dull or dry.

I was particularly inspired by the way Cook critically analyzes both first-hand accounts of, and later writings about, Rasputin’s assassination, and especially his humor: his 127-word description of how Felix Yusupov must have run on and on through the massive and magnificent Moika Palace (to commit the murder as he claimed he did!) just CRACKED ME UP! 

I love reading published correspondence: it takes me back to the times when people wrote long, personal missives instead of short Facebook comments, and you can really learn about a person through their letters.

I couldn’t put down this book because it put me face to face with the last Russian royals, Nicholas and Alexandra, and more than any other, it made me realize that they were not just historical figures but first and foremost ordinary people: husband and wife, parents to five children, relatives and friends to others.

Their personal thoughts, feelings, hopes and fears – especially for their fatally ill son Alexei, who suffered from hemophilia – affected the course of Russian history and their own fates. And with so many rumors about a possible affair between Alexandra and Rasputin, I was curious to read the letters that Nicholas and Alexandra exchanged: tender, passionate, at times erotic –… show more.

A comprehensive and lengthy study of the three-hundred-year rule of the Romanov dynasty, with particular attention paid to the reign of Russia’s last Tsar, Nicholas II. Lincoln, who was a professor of Russian history at Northern Illinois University, succeeds in bringing to life the sweeping saga of the Romanovs from their beginning in the seventeenth century with the accession to the throne of Michael I to the end with the abdication of Nicholas II in 1917 and onwards to the executions of the imperial family in 1918.

The Romanovs can be treated as both a general reference book for Romanov and imperial Russian history or as a starting point from which to delve further into specific subjects such as a particular reigning Russian monarch or historical event. Lincoln has produced a cogent, solidly researched work that succeeds in making the sometimes impenetrable and complex histories of Russia’s tsars much more… show more.

This is the personal account of the family of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra as told by their children’s French-language tutor. Gilliard, who spent the years 1905-1918 in the bosom of the imperial family, came to know the family well, and hence had nearly unprecedented access to them. Gilliard succeeds in fleshing out the personalities of the ill-fated family who were devoted to each other, to God, and to Russia. He also highlights in vivid detail the impact of the Tsarevich Alexis’s hemophilia on him, his family, and most especially his distraught mother. Thanks to Gilliard, we come to understand the impact Rasputin had on the Tsarina and her hemophiliac son, whose illness was a closely guarded secret.

The Swiss-born Gilliard notes in his book that he was so “appalled” by the countless “absurdities and falsehoods” written about Nicholas II and his family that he was compelled to “rehabilitate… show more.

A skillfully written account and engaging portrait of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna (1882-1960), younger sister of Tsar Nicholas II. Olga Alexandrovna’s life was no less dramatic than that of her brother, Nicholas II. Daughter, granddaughter, and sister to Russian emperors, Olga – a woman devoid of vanity and imbued with a strong faith – lived a life that could never be replicated. Immersed in the splendors of the Russian court, Olga also suffered through the Russian Revolution, and ultimately left Russia for a life of exile in Denmark and Canada. The Last Grand Duchess is Olga’s memoirs as told to Ian Vorres whose deft presentation of her story is to be applauded. Published in 1965, The Last Grand Duchess not only delves into Olga’s life but that of her family and other historical figures and brings a unique insight into the last Romanovs and Tsar Nicholas II in particular.

In… show more.